Fisherman gets 9 years’ jail, cane for robbing woman of jewellery, cash

KOTA KINABALU: A fisherman was jailed for nine years plus a stroke of the cane for robbing a woman of her jewellery and RM90 cash.

Sessions Court judge Azreena Aziz imposed the sentence on Md Azrin Mohammad Salleh, 38, after he pleaded guilty to the offence, yesterday.

He robbed the 42-year-old woman of her gold ring, two bracelets and RM90 cash at a house in Kampung Tempurong, Kuala Penyu, at 3am on November 26.

The offence was framed under Section 392 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to 14 years in jail and also liable to a fine or whipping, upon conviction.

In mitigation, the unrepresented Md Azrin prayed for a lenient sentence on the grounds that he had a family, including his children and sick mother, to support and promised not to repeat a similar offence.

However, deputy public prosecutor Husna Abdul Halim urged the court to impose a deterrent long custodial sentence with whipping against the accused who is also charged with consuming syabu at Beaufort courthouse.

She highlighted that robbery is a serious offence and violence was involved during the incident where the accused had dragged the victim around the house and intended to remove the victim’s clothes.

The accused had also threatened to kill the victim, who had no weapon, if the victim told anyone about the incident, which left the victim traumatized.

The court ordered the accused to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest.

Based on the facts of the case, the victim was sleeping in her bedroom and woke up when she heard sounds coming from downstairs of the house.

She went to check and saw a man, who is later known as the accused, in the living room wearing her tudung and her son’s jacket.

The victim screamed in shock but the accused quickly covered the victim’s mouth with his hand and put a cloth around her neck as she struggled to fight him off.

She begged for mercy by offering money but the accused pulled her hair and arm and dragged her to her bedroom to get the money.

After ransacking her things for money, the accused also tried to take off her clothes and whispered threats in her ear that he would kill her and her family as well as burn the house if she told anyone about the incident.

Then the victim told her sister about the incident and the latter lodged a police report against the accused.

The accused was then arrested on November 28 and the victim recognized the accused’s face during an identification parade.